Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Sticks And Stones! We're an HTTYD fan forum. Feel free to have a look around and stay awhile; whether you want to talk about the movie, post some fanwork, or just kick back and relax with us, we can't wait to have you!

If you'd like, join our community!

If you're already registered, just log in below:


Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Animated films have more major deaths than films for adults
Topic Started: Dec 20 2014, 06:46 PM (187 Views)
Night Fury
Member Avatar


Study confirms what a lot of us already know...

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/12/why-kids-movies-are-full-of-death/383819/

Quote:
 
They looked at 45 top-grossing animated children's films and 90 dramatic films for adults, finding that two-thirds of children’s movies depicted the death of an important character while only half of films for adults did. They also found that the main cartoon characters in children’s films were two-and-a-half times more likely to die, and three times as likely to be murdered, when compared with their counterparts in films for adults.


Delete Post Delete Post Delete Post Goto Top
 
Astrid Goes For A Spin
Member Avatar


I wonder if that's a conspiracy or something. Like, to ease children into understanding the "Circle of Life" by, oh, I don't know, killing Stoick. And Bambi's mom.
No one has ever killed a Night Fury - that's why I'm going to be the first.
Delete Post Delete Post Delete Post Goto Top
 
Erazer
Member Avatar
Night Fury
I still think it's kind of surprising, certainly an interesting statistic.

The reason may be the focus on main characters though. Adult films usually have far more casualties in action scenes (e.g. shootouts) but the main characters usually survive or only get injured, whereas in family films, casualties are rare but the death of main characters gets far more attention.
How to Train your Dragon - Hoppípolla
Delete Post Delete Post Delete Post Goto Top
 
Polychrome
Member Avatar
Official Conversation Killer
I'm actually glad to see this article. It puts a lot of myths about "kids stuff" to rest.

I think part of the issue is that "family" oriented movies, TV, books, video games, whatever tend to go very specifically for an epic "Hero's Journey", mainly for the ending payoff. Dragging the characters through hell early on makes for a lot of satisfaction when the hero finally wins the day. It also serves to build a character's background early on, giving them a reason to go off and adventure, but also an end goal: a motive for settling down and living out one's life at the end. They earn the right to call that mundane life "happily ever after".


Any crash you can walk away from is a good one! -Launchpad McQuack
Delete Post Delete Post Delete Post Goto Top
 
Night Fury
Member Avatar


Hmm... a lot of good points.

Honestly, I've never found the majority of films made for adults to be very "adult" in the first place. How is a bunch of gunplay and liberal use of the f-word supposed to be mature? ...seems more like immature to me. I think that most of those films are actually made for teenagers, despite what the ratings say. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy those films, but I don't really think of them as more mature than films like How to Train Your Dragon.

I do have to question whether the amount of deaths (main characters or otherwise) makes a film more mature... I think maturity has more to do with the subject matter itself, or what kind of questions the story poses. I know that there are many adult films that have complex plots that are too deep for children to understand, but many animated films also liberally use metaphors and layering in their stories. The kids can still follow them just fine, but adults can get a deeper meaning out of them.

Delete Post Delete Post Delete Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Dragon's Den · Next Topic »
Add Reply